Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Can you really complain about flooding…
  • Smee
    Free Member

    … when you live on a flood plain?

    The clue is in the name. 😉

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    Perfectly legit complaining, imo.

    Like buying a house by an airport and complaining about the noise, or one by a tip and complaining about the smell, or living under a bridge and complaining about the 'troll' accusations.

    uplink
    Free Member

    Of course you can complain
    Whether or not your complaint is valid is a totally different matter

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    Dobbo
    Full Member

    Are Keswick, Workington & Cockermouth built on a flood plains? Where do you get that info from?

    Most of the properties flooded are well over 100 years old and so it's not like some new build estates that are on flood plains. Or could it just be to do with record rain fall?

    geoffj
    Full Member

    I suspect the family of the Police man that died may have a view on this.

    skidartist
    Free Member

    I read somewhere that half of all houses built since the war are on flood plains. The problem can often be that flood defenses are built to protect these new builds, but these just offset the impact of the flood upsteam or downstream. So older houses that were fine in the past suddenly find themselves underwater.

    Not sure if thats the specific case in cumbria though.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Keswick that place with two big lakes either side and a river running through it, no thats not a flood plain.

    Kuco
    Full Member

    Flood dams are built up stream of residential area's where the only place they will affect are fields and the flow of the rivers. In some areas the water courses are regulated in flooding as to try to control how much flows down at once but if it rains a lot in one go there is not a lot the Environment Agency can do other than try to keep bridge holes/grids/culverts clear and to remove other blockages that occur and in built up areas a lot of the blockages is crap that the local residents has chucked in.
    Over the past 20 years where I live a lot of flood plains have been built on and more roads so the water all runs off these areas and has to go some where, and the Environment Agency can only advise not to build in flood areas.

    skidartist
    Free Member

    I suspect the family of the Police man that died may have a view on this.

    A view on bridges being built near rivers?

    monsta
    Free Member

    Now if you'd said "flood zone" that would be lead to a more open discussion. Flood plain ("I'm on a wide open plain" as someone stated once) suggests a rather flat area with a water course running nearby. If however, you're referring to flood zone that can represent any area, and its likelihood of flooding is rated accordingly.

    grantway
    Free Member

    Most houses/flats was built on Flood plains in the 80's
    Really your local Council Planning will be at fault
    as they have granted planning.

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Sometimes, moving somewhere and then complaining about something that was there before you CAN be amusing…

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026059/Church-bells-silenced-residents-complain-deafening-noise.html

    Crell
    Free Member

    Of course you can complain, but I wouldn't expect much to come of it. The issue is crated by a combination of planning policy and the extent of development, ground saturation levels / inability to percolate away, and record rainfall.

    As for those towns, funnily enough the areas that have flooded are the flood plain, but in this case, the flooding has extended beyond the recognised existing flood plain "boundary". The areas now affected would have been part of the flood plain years ago. Flood plains change over time. Planners base decisions based on the likelihood of nn year events, and in this case the volume of water was unprecedented.

    Looking at the aeriel pictures of Workington the flooded areas have always been susceptible and at times flooded, like the Cloffocks and Curwen Park – though not to this extent in living memory.

    druidh
    Free Member

    How is the Cardrona development doing at the moment. I always thought that looked a bit close to the river. Of course, all of the older houses are a wee bit higher up…

    andrewh
    Free Member

    Man in my village wanted to build a bungalow 20 years ago, planning permission refused as it was the site of the old village pond and the council said his house would flood. He built his bungalow somewhere else.
    15 years later the local farmer gave the planning officer a large brown envelope and permission was duely granted for the farmer's son to build his house on the site.
    It has flooded every year since. 🙂

    Northwind
    Full Member

    "I read somewhere that half of all houses built since the war are on flood plains. The problem can often be that flood defenses are built to protect these new builds, but these just offset the impact of the flood upsteam or downstream. So older houses that were fine in the past suddenly find themselves underwater."

    Don't know about the numbers but there's definately truth in this, some areas have essentially been turned into flood zones because of artificial changes to the watercourse further downstream. It's not so different to coastal defences, change the system in one place and something unexpected might happen somewhere else.

    I'm a wee bit sympathetic to people in this situation, I think there's a reasonable assumption that if someone's built a house, it shouldn't be somewhere idiotic, and if you get a survey done on the building beforehand and it says "Roof's a bit iffy… Could do with double glazing…" but doesn't say "Oh and it's in a lake for 2 months a year" then that's an issue too.

    And sometimes it's not at all obvious what's going to flood and what won't, you can be a long way from a watercourse and still be the lowest point, but if there's sections of higher ground between you and the river or a big impressive flood defence, then it's easy to see how people get caught out.

    Smee
    Free Member

    Druidh – Parts of Cardrona were flooded yesterday.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    It's all those roads they've built for cars, they are raised above the adjoining land. These create artificial dykes, so the water no longer runs where it supposed to. Culverts can only cope with normal levels of water flow.

    Ban the car I say! Tear up the roads and convert them to single track! Mmmm, better get back under my bridge…

    grantway
    Free Member

    100% behind what Northwind is saying, and regarding what may or may not
    flood should be looked at on past happenings and also looking at under
    water streams and newer builds or building projects higher up a gradient.

    Even new roads create problems and can even re-direct water flow into
    Towns/villages.
    New Towns or even old ones should create,check or even add drainage
    to prevent such unfortunate happenings.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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